Known card reader connectors, such as the connecting devices disclosed in Japanese Heisei 5-502959 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 9-185973, generally include an insulative body and a cover pivotally mounted on the insulative body for pivotal movement between an open and closed position. Contact areas on terminals mounted on the insulative body are adapted to mate with corresponding circuit conductors of a card inserted between the insulative body and the cover. Such a card reader is often mounted on a circuit board inside a cellular phone, so that the specific information loaded on the card can be accessed by the cellular phone user. The terminals typically include solder tails projecting outwardly from the insulative body, so that the card reader connector is connected to the circuit board by soldering the solder tails to corresponding circuit conductors on the underlying circuit board. After inserting the card into the connector while the cover is in its open position, the cover is closed and locked in the closed position. To remove the card, the lock is released, the cover is opened, and the card is manually extracted.
With hinged connectors such as those described above, it is desirable that the card be easily inserted and removed. There has also been a desire for miniaturizing this type of connector, and this makes operation of the smaller connectors less user friendly than their larger counterparts. For example, in the connectors disclosed in the above publications where a front end of a cover must be pulled for its release, it can be difficult to move the cover due to the small size. Furthermore, the presence of lock springs on both sides of the cover in the disclosed connectors results in less overall rigidity and strength in the cover and results in a card reader connector that is less robust than its larger counterparts.